1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a fluid ejecting apparatus such as an ink jet printer.
2. Related Art
In general, as a kind of fluid ejecting apparatus for ejecting fluid toward a target from a nozzle provided in a fluid ejecting head, an ink jet printer (hereinafter, simply referred to as “printer”) is known. In such a printer, since a nozzle opens to a nozzle formation surface of a print head (fluid ejecting head), as an ink solvent evaporates from the nozzle, ink (fluid) is thickened, which may cause ink ejection failure. Accordingly, such a printer is generally provided with a head maintenance mechanism.
The head maintenance mechanism is configured such that the mechanism includes a cap member which is able to come in contact with the print head to enclose the nozzle and a suction pump (suction unit) provided in an ink discharge passage connected to the cap member, and a negative pressure is generated in the cap member by driving the suction pump to suck and remove the thickened ink from the nozzle. A printer having such a head maintenance mechanism is disclosed in JP-A-9-131882.
The printer in JP-A-9-131882 is provided with a head reliability maintenance and recovery station in a head recovery area (maintenance area) other than in a print area of a moving area of a carriage. In the head reliability maintenance and recovery station, four cap members as cap units which come in contact with the respective four print heads (nozzles) supported by the carriage for sealing them are stored in a sled member supported by a guide frame to move in the same direction as the carriage. On an end portion of the sled member on the opposite side to the print area, a pin member which is engaged with the carriage stands, and the sled member is always biased by a spring toward the print area.
In addition, in the head reliability maintenance and recovery station, when the carriage is moved to the opposite side to the print area, the sled member is moved toward the same direction as the carriage with the pin member interposed therebetween against the biasing force of the spring, and when the carriage is moved toward the print area, the sled member is moved in the same direction as the carriage by the biasing force of the spring.
In addition, on the end portion of the sled member on the opposite side to the print area, a first member having four ink sucking communication holes to which the other ends of four tubes of which the one ends are connected to the respective cap members are connected is mounted. At the position opposed to an upper portion of the first member, a second member having an ink sucking communication hole to which the other end of a tube of which the one end is connected to the sucking pump is connected is fixed. In addition, in a state where the sled member is moved at a position where each cap member comes in contact with the corresponding print head, the second member comes in contact with the upper surface of the first member, and one of the ink sucking communication holes of the first member and the ink sucking communication hole of the second member are connected to each other.
In this case, which one among the ink sucking communication holes of the first member is connected to the ink sucking communication hole of the second member is determined by the position of the carriage which is able to move the first member with the sled member interposed therebetween. That is, among the cap members, the one that is sucked by the suction pump is determined by the position of the carriage. Therefore, in the printer of JP-A-9-131882, the print heads can be selectively sucked by controlling the position of the carriage.
However, in the printer of JP-A-9-131882, the ink sucking communication holes of the first member are arranged along the movement direction of the carriage. Therefore, when the sled member is moved by the carriage such that the ink sucking communication hole closest to the print area among the ink sucking communication holes of the first member is connected to the ink sucking communication hole of the second member, the sled member significantly protrudes to the opposite side to the print area from the guide frame. Therefore, a space where the sled member protrudes needs to be ensured, and this causes a problem of an increase in the size of the printer.